India announces plan to bring down air pollution from crop burning:

India’s government has announced new measures to help cut air pollution from the burning of agricultural waste, a major contributor to regular air quality crises in the north of the country.

The new measures, announced this month, offers subsidies for a range of machines that should remove the need for a farmer to set fire to his field in order to clear crop waste after a harvest and before the next planting season.

Without these machines, burning the stubble left over from the autumn harvest is the fastest and cheapest way to clear fields in time for the next planting season.

Read more here.

Preventing the burning of agricultural waste was among 10 solutions to India’s air pollution problem recommended by scientists in a study released in 2016 by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the University of California San Diego, Breathing Cleaner Air: Ten Scalable Solutions for Indian Cities. See the press release here.